The Strange Friends of Frank Zhang
by Personofmanythings
Summary: Mortal AU where Frank goes to a new school and meets some really strange people.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: the New City

It all began when the family mansion burned down. The maid had been called away for a family emergency and accidentally left the stove on, somehow one of the dishtowels caught fire and just like that, Frank's childhood home went up in smoke.

Luckily, no one had been home except the cat, who wasn't even singed but still refused to come back when Frank tried to catch him. Frank had been at school finishing an assignment and Grandmother was in the hospital after a heart attack. Martin Zhang, Frank's father, was somewhere in the Middle East and Frank's mother, Emily Zhang, was in the same place she'd been for over a year, the local cemetery.

Because of the fire Frank was being sent to a new school in New York. His dad had wanted to send him to San Francisco, but Grandmother, stuck in the hospital for the next few weeks as she was (and rehabilitation for months after that), had refused to let him go there. She had insisted that it was New York or nothing. Something about the Statue of Liberty being French. Frank wasn't really sure why that mattered since he was Chinese- Canadian, not French, but Grandmother had been adamant and she usually got her way.  
So here he was, on a plane to JFK airport, to go to a school in a city he'd never been in before. Still it could have been worse. They could have sent him to a really strict boarding school in France like Grandmother wanted in third grade. Fortunately, that had been one of the rare times she didn't get her way.

The school he was transferring to was called Goode high and supposedly it was really good for developing young minds and encouraging hidden talents to come out into the open. Personally, Frank wasn't so sure about that. He'd read up up on the school, and as far as he could tell it was where the troubled kids who only had minor problems got sent when their parents didn't want to admit that they actually did have problems. Of course, he could just be being really negative about the whole thing because of that overly sunny slogan on the school website saying 'Goode is Good', which seemed like it was trying way to hard to reassure him and was failing.

Frank wasn't even sure why he had to transfer schools in the first place. He'd been doing well in his old school, even winning a few spelling competitions. It felt like his dad was just wanted him out of his hair, which would be strange since he wasn't even in the country right now and wouldn't be for a few more months. Maybe he just wanted Frank to learn how to live on his own and experience the real world. After all, he had gotten him his own apartment for while he lived in New York.

Frank hadn't noticed, but while he had been contemplating all this, the plane had begun its decent . When he finally realized this and looked out the window, the had reached the ground.

Well, he thought, I guess I'm in New York now.

For those of you who bother to read author's notes, this is my first story so constructive criticism is appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: the New Apartment

After getting his luggage, Frank hailed a taxi and gave the driver his address. When they reached the large building, he got out and paid the man, not forgetting to tip him. Then he looked up at his new home with all its windows and fire escapes. It was a very tall building, and didn't really look friendly to Frank.

Determined to give his new life in the city a chance, Frank went in and got his key before heading up to his apartment and unlocking the door. He let himself into a front room packed with boxes for him to unpack and organize. He went back to his room and began the chore of moving in, setting up and making his bed first and then filling the dresser drawers with clothes he found in a box in the hall. Then he moved on to the kitchen, which he figured he would need more than the living room. That took a lot longer and by the time he finished it was nine o'clock and he was exhausted and hungry.

Just as he was about to get himself supper, someone nocked on the door. Wondering who it was, Frank went to answer it. Standing out in the hall was a girl, maybe two inches shorter then him, with curly blond hair and dark grey eyes. Said eyes seemed to be analyzing him, which made him feel really nervous.

"Can I help you?" Frank asked, unsure if he wanted the answer.

"I was just wondering, you're new here right? So I thought that I could help you settle in if you wanted. My name's Annabeth, Annabeth Chase. What's your's?",the girl replied in a friendly manner, her eyes softening as she spoke.

"Yeah, I'm new here. But I think I've got it all handled. My name's Frank, Frank Zhang. Thanks for asking by the way."

"Oh, well if you need anything I live right down the hall in apartment 26D."

"Thanks again, I'll probably see you later."

The girl nodded in response before leaving back to her own apartment.

Frank sighed in releaf and went back inside to prepare supper. After he finished eating, he cleaned up the kitchen area and went to bed, hoping that the next day would be less exhausting.


	3. Chapter 3: Frank's First Day in the City

Chapter 3: Frank's First Day in the City

When Frank woke up the next morning, he felt miserable and wasn't sure why. He got up to get himself breakfast and immediately stubbed his toe on a box that he'd forgotten to move the day before. Which obviously made the whole 'moving to New York' thing _much_ better. Or not. There wasn't anything in the fridge yet, so Frank had dry cereal to appease his grumbling stomach until later.

After breakfast he made a list of things he would need before Monday and headed out for his first shopping trip in the city. He decided to go to his new school first to be certain he could find it so that he wouldn't be late the next day.

Soon enough he found it. The school was bigger than he'd originally thought, and _definitely_ had more grandeur. There were massive pillars at the front entrance and the doors themselves were pretty big to. Outside of the school he saw a middle aged man with, who was probably a teacher, with a briefcase and talking on a phone.

Since he'd located his school, Frank found a subway station and went shopping. By the time he got home it was three o'clock and he was horribly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Cities were _extremely_ tiresome to shop in. He put everything away and then ordered pizza for dinner (and for supper).

At six o'clock, Frank finally finished moving in and started getting everything ready for his first day at Goode.

At about nine thirty, while Frank was watching _Veggie Tales_ **** **(I don't know if this is something he would watch or not, but it does seem like something he would watch with his mother, so it became a comfort thing or something like that)** and building himself a mental fortitude, he heard laughter coming from down the hall, in the direction of Annabeth's apartment. It sounded like she was there with someone, a guy by the sounds of it, and they'd just gotten back from a date. The guy said something and Annabeth responded rather loudly.

"No! You cannot stay to watch _Finding Nemo_ again! If you fall asleep on my couch one more time, and Mom sees you, we'll both be in for it! Besides, it's a school night and Sally won't like you staying up lat."

"Fine, I'll go home! See you tomorrow, Annabeth."

Annabeth said something else in return and then it was quiet again. Frank supposed that the guy had left and Annabeth had gone inside. The movie finished and he went to bed, hoping for a good day tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:Goode High

On Monday morning, Frank woke up dreading his first day of school. It wasn't just that he was the new kid at school, he was also the new kid at school who transferred in from Canada in the middle of winter. He was pretty sure there was no way to prepare for what lay ahead or to avoid it either. After lieing in bed for a few extra minutes, Frank got up and fried himself some eggs and ham for breakfast. Then he gathered up his books and left to face the torture that promised to make his day miserable.

When he got to school, it was still early and there weren't many students there yet. He found the administration office and got his schedule, the secretary gave him directions to his first class of the day and said they would assign someone to show him around later.

His first class was homeroom and by the time he got there half the desks were filled. He chose one and went over to it. Next to the desk he had chosen sat a blond boy with bright blue eyes. His hair was close cropped and he wore a pair of gold rimmed glasses, which didn't exactly match the rest of him, due to the fact that he looked a lot like the stereotypical 'perfect boy' that girls tended to fawn over.

"Is this seat taken?" Frank asked the boy.

He looked up and replied, "No, it's not taken. You're new here, right? Only, I've never seen you before."

"Yeah, I'm new. Just transferred in today actually."

"Well, good luck with your first day then. Has anyone shown you around yet?"

"No. They said they'd assign someone later."

"In that case I've got my fingers crossed for you. If you're lucky they'll have Annabeth so it."

Frank was about to ask what he meant, but the teacher came in and class began. Mr. Farrell had him introduce himself to the rest of the class and then they began the lesson.

A girl named Tracy Shaw told him that she was supposed to show him to his classes and life carried on without a problem until lunch time.

One minute Tracy was chattering happily, the next she went quiet and a little pale. Frank followed the direction of her gaze and saw three guys heading their way. They were all big, musclebound seniors and they clearly upset Tracy a lot.

She squeaked slightly and said "Um, Frank, I'm going to head to lunch. See you later!" Clearly relieved to be getting out of there, she scurried down the hall and away from the seniors.

Frank looked back at the seniors, unsure of what to do. They were smirking at him and one cracked his knuckles. It all made him feel very uneasy, but he decided to give diplomacy a go anyway.

"Hey. I'm Frank. I just transferred in. Who are you?"

"We're just the guys who're gonna beat you to a pulp."

"Uh...can I ask why you want to do that?" Frank wasn't sure he wanted to know, but it was still worth asking about.

"'Cause Jackson's been interfering with our fun lately and you showed up to relieve our stress. That's why."

Frank didn't know who this 'Jackson' was, bit he did know that the guy had nothing to do with him. Luckily for him, two new boys showed up. One was the boy he'd sat next to that morning and the other he didn't know. He was about six feet tall, with black hair and green eyes. He looked like a senior, which was good, because Frank needed help, badly, and with luck the two would help him. Of course, luck hadn't exactly been on his side so far.

Then the black-haired boy spoke up. "I thought you guys stopped doing this after the last time I caught you."

The leader of the bullies growled saying, "Lay off Jackson. This is none of your business. You and Grace should just go back to your own loser gang and leave us alone, or else you'll really get it this time."

'Jackson' smirked."I thought I really 'got it' last time." His voice hardened. "Now stop bothering the new guys, or else I'll follow Thallia's example and beat you up again."

The bullies growled again, but left, muttering under their breath as the followed in the direction Tracy had gone.

The other boys turned to Frank and the blond one said "Sport about that. Frank right?"

"Yeah, that's me. Uh, what did they mean when they said you'd been interfering with their fun?"

"Oh they're just upset that I've been standing up for the kids they were picking on. You'd think they'd have learned their lesson by now. I'm Percy by the way, Percy Jackson."

"And I'm Jason Grace." The blond boy said. "What happened to your guide?"

"They scared her off. Not sure where she is now, though."

"Probably lunch. Come on, you can sit with us if you want."

"Thanks."

The two went to the cafeteria and Frank followed behind, hoping for an incident free meal. When the got there, Jason and Percy made straight for a table near the back that already had about ten people sitting at it. The all grinned when they drew near and one, a dark haired girl with dark eyes, asked "Who's this?"

"I'm Frank Zhang, I just transferred here from Canada."

"You're the guy who just moved into my building!" another girl said. Frank looked at her and saw that it was Annabeth.

"Oh, yeah. Didn't know you came here."

She shrugged and a pretty girl with caramel colored hair and almond eyes asked "Aren't you guys going to sit down?"

"Nah," Percy said, "we need to get food first. They still have pizza, right?"

Annabeth nodded and Jason, Percy, and Frank went to get food. When they got back to the table, an argument was taking place.

"I'm telling you, they need to get a better robotics set up before I'll agree to join! As it is I'd have to reprogram everything they've got just so it can be semi up to speed!"

"But Leo, its the school robotics club! They're not going to be up to speed! The just want you to come in and help them out sometimes! It's not like they're asking you to join permanently, and besides, you love mechanical stuff."

"What are you guys arguing about?" Percy asked, sliding into the seat next to Annabeth.

"The school robotics club asked Leo to check out their equipment and help them figure out a few kinks with their new project. Leo, of course, won't even look in on it." She explained.

"I told you, Annabeth, they'll wind up asking me to build the entire robot for them, and I don't want to." replied a short guy with curly hair and dark brown eyes. Frank assumed he was Leo.

Jason sighed and said "Again? That has to be the fifth time they've asked you so far this year."

"Why don't you check it out and then make your decision?" Percy suggested.

"Fine." Leo said " but if I decide not to help none of you get to complain. Deal?"

Annabeth grumbled a bit but agreed anyway.

Percy looked at Frank and said "I should probably introduce you to the rest of the gang, shouldn't I?"

Annabeth sighed. "Yes, you probably should, Seaweed Brain."

"Alright so that's Leo," he said pointing to the boy who'd been arguing with Annabeth, "this is Reyna," now he gestured to the dark haired girl, "she's Calypso," to the caramel haired girl, "Nico," an emo lookin guy who was probably a freshman with black hair and eyes, "Piper," a really pretty girl with choppy brown hair and eyes that seemed to change color as she moved, "Kayla," a sophomore with ginger hair that had a bright green streak iin it and blue eyes, "Chris," a Hispanic senior with black jair and brown eyes, " and Hazel." Hazel was an African-American freshman with curly cinnamon toast hair and golden eyes, which reminded Frank of molten gold and seemed just as warm.

Throughout the rest of the lunch hour Frank listened to the friends chatter, sometimes arguing, sometimes laughing at each other's jokes. Ten minutes before the bell rang they all quieted down and turned to Percy, who grinned and opened his backpack. He pulled out a bag of cookies which seemed to be blue for some reason. Frank glanced at the others wondering what this was all about. Percy started handing out cookies and they held them, looking at them almost reverently. Percy offered Frank a cookie and he took it uncertainly.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but why are they blue?" he asked.

"Old joke. I'll probably tell you later but first eat it so the others can see your reaction and then eat their own."

Frank bit into the cookie and was amazed at how good it was. The others grinned at his reaction and then wolfed down their own cookies right before the bell rang. They all got up and headed off to class (Jason had offered to take over for Tracy and show him around), saying 'goodbye's and 'I'll see you latter's.

By the end of school that day, Jason had told Frank all about the Goode high social network (sometimes with Leo and Piper's help as they had some of the same classes), including Stella, the most popular girl at school, with her minions, and Darrick, the most popular boy, and all his cronies. They also told him about the group of bullies who had antagonized him earlier. Apparently they'd been terrorizing students for a long time, until Percy had stepped in and kept getting in their way. It had escalated till the point where Percy had had to beat the entire gang in a fight. He'd won to, with only a few bruises to show for it, they on the other hand, had all been sent to the nurse with sprains, bruises, and in one case, cracked ribs. Now they avoided Percy and his friends like the plague and usually left people alone.

Frank walked home with Annabeth, since they lived in the same building, and when he got home started on his schoolwork. Annabeth offered to help him with that because she was really good with school, but he'd declined since he didn't really need help. At nine thirty, he went to bed thinking _Maybe Goode isn't so bad after all._

 **So, bowed you like it? This chapter's longer than the others are going to be, but I'm** ** _very_** **proud of it, so please review.**


	5. Chapter 5: the Strangeness of Percabeth

Chapter 5: the Strangeness That Is Percabeth

On Tuesday morning, just as Frank was getting ready to leave for school, there was a knock on his door. Wandering who it could be (a long lost pizza delivery guy maybe?), he opened the door and was surprised to see Annabeth and Percy standing there.

"Want to go to school together?" Percy asked cheerfully.

"Sure. Just let me finish getting ready." he replied, slightly uncertain.

He let them in and finished gathering up his books. As they walked to school, Percy bounced along happily, holding hands with Annabeth who was smiling at his antics. They passed a Starbucks and Percy stopped suddenly.

"Hey, Wise Girl, want some hot cocoa?" he asked.

"Fine, but make it a peppermint mocha. Do you want anything, Frank?" Annabeth asked.

Feeling rather uncertain, he said "Yeah, sure."

Bouncing happily, Percy entered the store to get the hot cocoa.

"Is he always like that?" Frank asked Annabeth.

"No, but I told him we could go on a date tonight and he started bouncing off the walls. I'm not sure he really needs the sugar that hot cocoa is going to give him."

"Oh." was all Frank could think to say.

When Percy came back he had Annabeth's peppermint mocha, a caramel latte for himself, and vanilla hot cocoa for Frank, who tried to pay for his but Percy waved it off.

"Hey, it's on me. Consider it my welcome to New York present."

As they continued on there way, Frank noticed that the dolup of whipped cream on Percy's latte was blue. How he'd missed that he didn't know, but there it was in all its blue glory. How had he even managed to get them to color it blue?

He decided to ask about Percy's weird obsession with blue.

"Hey, Percy, what's with all the blue food? I mean yesterday it was cookies, today it's whipped cream. What's that about?" he questioned.

"Oh, my mom met this jerk once. They went on one date and he really annoyed her, to the point where he said that there was no such thing as blue food and she decided to order everything that was blue on the menue. Ever since, we've had this joke about blue food and she goes out of her way to make it all blue." Percy and Annabeth started laughing, Annabeth nearly choking on her mocha.

Frank looked at them in confusion. Sure the story was funny, but not _that_ funny.

Seeing the look on his face, Annabeth managed to say "It's a lot funnier if you know Sally."

After they got over their laughter, the trio continued on there way to school, stopping once to throw away their empty cups.

When they finally got there they were greeted by the rest of the group and Piper seeing Percy's happy expression, said "I take the two of you are going on a date tonight."

Percy nodded happily and led the way over to the lockers. Frank went to his, which was across the hall from the other's. When he got back, Jason was congratulating Percy on his good luck grinning along with him and clapping him on the back. Then they all split up to their various classes, Frank following Jason, and grumbling about all their least favorite teachers of the day.

"Is this Percy and Annabeth's first date?" Frank asked Jason.

"No, they've actually been dating for over a year. But he gets so excited every time she agrees to go out it's hard not to at least congratulate him. It's better than what Piper used to do anyway."

"Really? What did Piper used to do?"

"She used to cheer and send off streamers every time Percy told us they were going on a date. To be honest, I nearly do the same thing as Percy whenever Piper agrees to go on a date with me."

" So how many of you guys are dating?" Frank asked, just out of curiosity mind you, not because he wanted to know if Hazel was dating anyone.

Jason grinned and said "Well Percy and Annabeth, obviously, me and Piper, Leo and Calypso, and Chris is dating a girl named Clarisse, you wouldn't know her by the way since she goes somewhere else for school."

Frank felt relieved for some reason and Jason must have sensed it because he said "If you want to date Hazel, be careful. We all think of her as a little sister, but Nico is actually her older brother. He only just got their dad to agree to let her come to an actual school this year instead of a boarding school for girls and he's _very_ protective of her. It doesn't matter if he likes you now, if you do anything that might hurt her, he'll probably kill you. Literally. And Percy's protective of her to, and we both know you don't want to be on his bad side. So just be careful."

On that pleasant note they entered the classroom and sat down. Jason gave him one last warning look before turning to face the blackboard, leaving Frank to contemplate what he'd just been told.

At lunchtime, they all congregated at the table in the back, Percy immediately started talking with Piper and Calypso about date ideas. Frank thought that Percy was being a little overly excited about this date, considering that he and Annabeth's had been dating for over a year but then he saw Annabeth looking on with a pleased smile and figured that she liked how much effort Percy was putting in. So maybe he wasn't being overly excited after all.

He saw Tracy watching Percy, she sighed enviously and Frank guessed that she wanted a boyfriend like that. Then he looked around and noticed that quite a few people were watching the group with similar looks on their faces. He turned to Kayla who was next to him, and asked "What are they all staring at us for?"

She looked up and said "It's probably because they're jealous. Stella and Darrick are supposed to be the most popular, but we all know it's really Percy and Annabeth. I mean, they're like the perfect couple. Annabeth has the best grades in the school despite having dyslexia and ADHD and Percy's the swim captain. They're both seniors, both good looking, they both have ADHD and dyslexia, they've been going out for over a year, and they're both really nice to everyone. So anyone in their group is immediately envied. Weird really, since if we weren't all together in one group we'd be the unpopular people in the back of the room with disabilities and single parents."

That surprised Frank. "You all have disabilities and single parents?" He asked.

"Yeah. What about it?" asked Nico, overhearing their conversation.

"Nothing. It's just that I'm lactose intolerant and my mom died last year."

"Wow, Jackson did it again." Leo said, sounding impressed. "He always manages to find the kids like that. Someday I'm gonna have to figure out how he does that, cause it's kinda freaky."

Calypso smacked Leo upside the head. "You know what Annabeth will do to you if she catches you experimenting on her boyfriend again." She said chiding him.

"Wait, again? What happened the first time?" Frank asked.

"Leo here was testing for brain waves while Percy was sleeping once. He accidentally lit his bed on fire and Annabeth nearly killed him." was the reply he got from a sniggering Kayla.

"Why were you testing for brain waves in the first place?"

"Because Percy's weird and Piper wouldn't let me test my latest invention on her instead." complained Leo.

"I wonder why." Piper said. The rest of the group had decided to enter into the conversation.

"So, Percy, how do you do it?" Chris asked, looking at Percy.

"How do I do what?"

"Find the kids who need your help." Chris said.

"I don't think any of you actually need my help. And I don't exactly go looking for you. I just, sort of, help where I can."

"Oh please, Percy. We all know that without you we would be the miserable, unpopular kids who barely get by." said Nico.

"No you wouldn't be-" started Percy, but Annabeth cut him off.

"Just give up, Seaweed Brain. You're not going to win this one. They're right and we all know it. Before we met, I was the twelve year old who ran away from home at age seven because of her stepmother and stepbrothers and acted all know-it-all. I wouldn't even visit my dad until you convinced me to."

Frank looked around and saw that everyone else was nodding along to what Annabeth was saying. He felt rather surprised that Annabeth had a past like that and that Percy had helped her out that much. No wonder everyone liked him so much. Percy finally gave up and agreed with them (although Frank got the sneaking suspicion that he didn't really) and lunch carried on as usual. Or as usual as lunch was with this group. Ten minutes before the bell rang they all turned to Percy and he got out the cookies. As Frank ate his, he remembered the story Percy had told him that morning and grinned. Then they all went to their own classes for the second half of the day. When school ended they all went their separate ways with promises to see each other later. Frank waved goodbye to Hazel, who smiled and waved in return. Frank saw Nico glaring at him and quickly put his hand down, hoping for a longer life that way. Percy saw and grinned at him before taking Annabeth's hand and heading back to her apartment. Frank followed, listening to the couple bickering and laughing at each other and themselves.

Later that night at about five o'clock, Percy showed up to take Annabeth on their date and stopped by to say hi. Frank wished him luck on his date and he grinned, showing all his teeth in a smile that should have been on a toothpaste add. The two looked so happy together that Frank had to smile too. Those two seemed made for each other.

 **There you have it! That one was really long, hope you liked it!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Percy's Party

Frank's first week in New York passed quickly. Percy and Annabeth's date had apparently gone well and the other guys in the group had been eavesdropping on the girls as they discussed iit, looking for date ideas. Frank had gotten more used to the group's odd behavior and even joined in on some of the jokes. Every morning he walked to school with Percy and Annabeth and on most days he walked back with them, except for Tuesday and Thursday when Percy has swim practice and Annabeth went to study in the library until he was done.

At lunch on Friday Percy invited him to a party that would take place at his apartment.

"You'll get to meet Jason's older sister and Chris' girlfriend!" he promised. "And Mom's baking an extra big batch of cookies just for us!"

That part startled Frank a bit. "Your mom's going to be there?"

"Yeah. Percy's parties are more like... a gathering of friends. There's no alcohol and we watch movies and play games until about twelve o'clock at night. Then some of us stay over until after breakfast and the rest go home. Sally's kind of like a second mom to all of us. So we all enjoy them. Plus you don't get hangovers." Jason explained.

"Sure. I'll come." Frank decided.

So at five o'clock, Percy picked Annabeth and Frank up to drive them to his apartment. When they got there, people were already arriving despite the fact that the party actually started at five-thirty.

Chris had his arm around a girl who was built like a pro wrestler with stringy brown hair and brown eyes. Jason was arguing with a girl about five years older than him with spiky black hair and electric blue eyes. She looked intimidating and Frank kind of hoped to avoid her. Percy started showing him around and introducing him to people, unfortunately starting with the girl arguing with Jason.

"Hey Thalia! This is Frank. Frank this is my cousin Thalia, Jason's older sister."

"Hi. Nice to meet you, Frank. Percy, your mom's not letting anyone in the kitchen and I _need_ my cookies."

"I'm not surprised she won't let you in there anymore. Remember last time when you somehow managed to blow up the microwave? She let Annabeth right in."

Thalia glared at Percy for a minute before turning back to Jason to start their argument back up again.

"She blew up the _microwave_?!" Frank asked, shocked.

"Yeah. Still not sure how though." Percy frowned in thought before perking back up again. "This is Clarisse, Chris' girlfriend. Clarisse this is Frank." he said, by way of introduction to the girl with Chris.

Percy continued introducing Frank to people as they showed up and soon the apartment was filled. At that point Percy's mother, Sally, made her appearance along with Paul, Percy's stepfather. She greeted everyone and they all seemed to be in awe of her, making extra room for her because she was pregnant and sometimes hugging her. Paul, though, they crowded. Mostly because he was holding a platter of bright blue cookies and a gigantic bowl of chips.

After everyone had gotten themselves food they all went into the living room and Percy turned on the TV. At which point Percy's dog, a huge black doberman named Mrs. O'Leary, came barrelling downstairs to lick everyone and steal a few cookies. The movie started and the dog lay down on the ground next to Percy and Nico, trapping their feet under her stomach. Somehow Frank ended up next to Hazel, which made him happy, and for the entire span of the movie he kept glancing at her and then quickly looking away before glancing her again.

After the movie finished, board games and more food was gotten out much to Thalia's evident joy. Sally went to bed and the teens quieted down significantly to let her sleep. Paul played chess with Jason, who kept winning, and Percy got out monopoly. Annabeth won after forty-five minutes of playing and it only took that long because Percy and Thalia kept cheating when her back was turned. In the next four hours Frank was positive that he saw every game he'd ever played out during some point of the night. From spin-the-bottle to checkers, it was there. Some people had even brought their own and all of the games were played quickly, due to the fact that almost everyone there had ADHD to some degree or another.

At twelve o'clock the crowd began dispersing, the cookies long since eaten. They all said goodbye and headed home. All, that is, except Percy's cousins, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Calypso, and Frank. Frank was about to leave, but Percy called him back and made him stay until the next morning, which was fine by Frank. He was really glad he'd come.

 **Sorry this is so late. I meant to update on Sunday, but the WiFi router broke so I couldn't.**


	7. Chapter 7: the Tour of New York

Chapter 7: Tour of New York

On Saturday morning, Frank woke up with a cold, wet nose in his ear. He shot up from his place on the floor immediately and tried to reorient himself to his surroundings. emOh, right. /emhe thought, emI'm in Percy's apartment./em Then he tried to figure out what exactly had woken him up. Nearby was Percy's dog, Mrs. O'Leary licking Nico's face while Nico tried to get her off him.

"Stop it, Mrs. O'Leary! I'm all ready up, so get off!"  
Someone started chuckling from the entrance of the living room. Frank turned to see Percy grinning at his cousin. "Aw, come on Neeks, you know you love it when she does that. Besides, you're her favorite." he said, smirking.  
"No I'm not! Animals hate me! Your crazy mut is no exception! Now get her off me before I tell Thals that you're the one who broke her guitar last year!"  
Percy paled. "You wouldn't."  
"Try me and let's see." came the retort.  
Frank had no idea why Percy's cousin would still be upset about something that happened a year ago but decided not to ask. That girl terrified him and he didn't want to know about anything that might make her mad. Evidently Percy felt the same way, because he pulled Mrs. O'Leary off of Nico and held her at bay as the younger boy got up and headed to the kitchen to get himself breakfast.

"And I replaced it, so stop using that as blackmail! It's not fair!" Percy complained before turning to Frank. "Morning, Frank. Hope you had a good night's sleep. Sorry if Mrs. O'Leary woke you up, she thinks it's her job to get people up in the morning."

"Yeah she did, but I probably should of got up anyway. Where is everyone?" he asked.  
"They're all in the kitchen getting breakfast. You want anything?"  
"Yeah, thanks."

The two went into the kitchen and Frank was immediately assaulted by a fork flying through the air straight at his head. Percy caught it before Frank could react, sending it straight back at the person who had originally thrown it. She caught it and sighed gloomily.  
"Someday I'm going to throw something at you and you won't catch it. Because, damnit Jackson, that's annoying." Thalia complained.  
Frank looked at Percy, startled. How had he even _caught_ that?! Percy seemed completely unfazed though, as did everyone else.  
"You'd better hope Sally didn't hear you say that, Thals. You know how much she dislikes swearing." Nico said, not even looking up from his bowl of cornflakes.  
Jason saw Frank's confused expression and decided to explain. "Thalia and Percy have a kind of competition where she throws something and he catches it. None of us really know how it started and they won't tell."

Not sure that that actually explained anything, but deciding to let it go since nothing about Percy or his friends really made sense, he looked around. Paul and Sally both still seemed to be in bed but everyone else was seated around the table eating various foods for their breakfasts. Nico and Hazel were both eating cornflakes, Annabeth was eating a bagel while reading a book, Jason was buttering a stack of freshly fried pancakes, and Thalia was stabbing at her own stack of pancakes, looking annoyed. Percy sniggered at her, getting his own plate of them and sitting down next to Annabeth. Frank got himself some cornflakes before sitting next to Hazel, as far away from Thalia as he could manage. He didn't want her stabbing _him_ with that fork.  
Percy munched away happily at his food, ignoring the glares sent his way, and grinning happily at his girlfriend. Occasionally, Frank saw him slipping bits of pancake to Mrs. O'Leary under the table.  
Jason finished his pancakes and decided to break the cheerful silence that seemed to fill the kitchen. "So, what are you guys all doing today?" he asked.

"Me and Annabeth are going to Montauk and bringing Thals with us for 'adult supervision'." Percy said cheerfully, making airquotes around the words 'adult supervision'. "Is Luke coming with us?" he asked looking at Thalia.  
"Yeah. As soon as he's done grading papers he'll meet us there."  
"I take it his new job is doing well." Annabeth said, finally looking up from her book.  
"Yup. It's doing great. For some reason he really likes teaching. Why though I have no idea."  
"Well, he's always been good at it, and unlike you, he actually _likes_ kids." Percy said, just to annoy her more.  
Thalia scowed at him, which just caused his smirk to widen further.  
"Who's Luke?" Frank asked, hoping Thalia wouldn't turn her glare on him instead. Luckily Nico answered him while Thalia turned her attention back to her food.  
"He's Thalia's fiancé. He teaches history at Newberry Middleschool in Brooklyn."  
For the first time, Frank noticed a slim band of gold with diamond on Thalia's ring finger. It looked expensive.

At the mention of her fiancé, Thalia smiled and stopped stabbing at her food.

"What about you, Nico? What are you doing today?" Jason asked.

"Dad wants me to help him with the company. Apparently, some of the workers are demanding a pay raise, without earning it, and the security system needs updating. You?"

"The same. I wanted to go on a date with Piper, but he said I could have all day with her tomorrow."

"Makes you wish you were emancipated like me, doesn't it, little brother?" Thalia said.

"No. It just makes me treasure my free time all the more."

Thalia shook her head at him as e turned to Hazel. "You doing anything today, Hazel?"

"Well, I haven't planned anything, but-"

"So you can show Frank around, right? No one's given you thee official tour yet have they?" Percy interrupted her with glee.

"No, but it's fine. I can find my way around."

"Nope! You need the official tour! It's tradition! So, can you do it Hazel?"

"Yeah, sure. There was a store I wanted to check out anyway."

"Great! Now that that's settled, we have to get going." Annabeth said.

The teenagers all cleaned up the kitchen and gathered up their suff while Thalia sat and threw random things at Percy, all of which he caught.

Sally and Paul came downstairs and said goodbye to everyone as the prepared to leave. Jason and Nico went first, Nico sending a glare at Frank that said 'Hurt her and die.' Then Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia left after stealing a large bag of blue cookies from behind Sally's back. Finally, Frank and Hazel left after thanking the Blofises for having them over. They stopped at Hazel's house first (it was more of a mansion) so that she could get changed and then she began showing him around. She took him to all of her favorite places, including the skating rink and the park, and then took him through all the tourist stops. Finally at dinner time, she showed him her favorite restaurant, the Smoked Pepper Grill. They went in and ordered their food before waiting in companionable silence. Then Frank decided to ask something that had been bothering him for a while.

"Hey, Hazel? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Kayla tod me that pretty much everyone in the group is troubled. Sorry if that sounded offensive! I didn't mean it like that!"

"No, it's okay. I get what you're saying. You want to know how it works. I know that we can be _really_ confusing, I didn't understand how it worked at first either."

"Yeah. So can you explain it?" asked an extremely relieved Frank. He'd thought she would get upset.

"I'll try. It still confuses me even now, despite knowing the guys for almost a year. Well, I guess it works _because_ we're all so strange and confusing. We're all kind of social outcasts despite having pretty much exactly what it takes to be popular. We're all rich to some extent, most of us have dyslexia or ADHD, and we all only really have one parent. Normally we'd just be the kids everyone ignores, but then Percy comes along and suddenly we're all like one big, happy, kind of disfunctional family. It wouldn't work without Percy, that much I can tell you for sure. People just... gravitate to him. He makes friends and he _never_ leaves them behind. He's always looking out for everyone. As a matter of fact, from what I heard, that's the only reason he was ever unpopular before. He'd find the kids he thought could use some help and stick by them no matter what."

"Okay, that makes sense because of how the school bullies act around him. But how do you guys all know him anyway? You said you'd be the ones people ignored, so how does he find you?"

"Well, I'm not really sure. None of us really know how exactly he finds us, he just... _does._ It's strange, but that's how it works. For instance, Annabeth. You wouldn't think that she has a lot of problems would you? But he met her one summer and kept bothering her until she gave in and told him what was wrong. As it turned out, she ran away from home when she was seven because of her stepmother and brothers, she only met her birth mother when she was ten, and she still didn't get along well with anyone in her family. It was the same year he met his biological father and he convinced her that he could give his dad a second chance, so could she. And she did. She gets along a lot better with them now and Percy and Annabeth became friends."

"When did they start dating, anyway? Jason said they've been dating for over a year, but that's not the full story is it?"

"Yeah, but I don't really know all that much about it. It has something to do with Thalia and Luke, I know that, but if you really want to know you need to ask them yourself. It's not really my place to say."

"Thanks for helping me understand it all better."

She smiled and nodded. "Any other questions you need answered?"

"Yeah. What's Montauk? Is it some kind of park near here that I've never heard of or something?"

"No. It's a beach." seeing his extremely confused face she hurried to explain. "It's really pretty there in winter and there's a cabin. Percy loves the place so he and Annabeth go there all the time. It's not like they'll be staying for the night or going swimming or anything, they'll just spend a nice romantic day at the beach with Thalia and Luke. They'll probably light a bonfire and roast marshmallows and things."

" Oh. That actually sounds like fun."

"It is. Every year we go up there for a beach party for Percy's birthday and it's great." she assured him.

Their food arrived and they spent the rest of the meal talking about their favorite foods and movies they'd seen that year. Afterwards Hazel went home and so did Frank. All in all he'd had a great day.


End file.
